[Hobbes]

I'm thinking an EMP device that fries all drones within that city block...

I'd have to look at the spell list again for 6E.  If not the CRB the first Magic book should have a Ram/Destroy Object sort of spell.  Bad Killer Robots!  Ka-Boom!

[dmetzkayak]

Hi Hobbes, you are right, spirits are definitely still OP, especially since their damage and hardened armor ratings were not halved to reflect the reduced effects of armor.

The technomancer build was really aimed at giving the riggers (and technomancers) at heart; some ideas of how they can make a viable character that can scale from beginner missions to an advanced dragon hunting campaign. Most GMs and players would shelf a character who brought 18 drones with 18 attack dice each to their table on the first mission. But I can imagine it would be encouraged and entertaining for the final fight against a Magic 16 Blood Shaman and his guard of special forces, prof rating 8 grunts.

To answer the question as to how the technomancer would sustaining the complex forms for the drones. She/he uses the quality Concentration 3 to negate the sustaining modifiers for three complex forms.

Since drones would only ever need to use 3 skills in one round, the technomancer would not suffer from sustaining penalties.
While infiltrating:  Manuevering, Clearsight, Sneaking.
While in combat: Evasion, targeting, and either maneuvering or clearsight.

The Remote control rig allows for up to 18 (rating level 6 rigs) drones to benefit from the same autosoft(s) using a single command from the technomancer.

The Nissan Samuria has a pilot and sensor rating of 3 and 2 allowing for 17 and 18 dice pools for combat attacks and defenses, which is not as high as a dedicated min/max shooter, but is comparable to a level 8 spirit.

The drones are glass cannons compared to spirits, but at least they are more robust than they were in 5E, as well as more robust than most player characters.

Either way, it is a fun idea, and a fun mechanic that I have enjoyed exploring.

[rackhir]

Its not clear to me how exactly emulate(autosoft) interacts with the drones. 

The rules for drones specify that they have slots for autosofts up to pilot_rating/2, OR they use the autosofts running on the RCC that they are slaved to.

Actually, upon re-reading that rule, it does not actually specify "OR".  I still think that it is ambiguous, but I guess that you can make a solid argument that a drone slaved to RCC can run its own autosofts plus the RCC autosofts.

That still doesn't explain how the complex form interacts with this.  Are you assuming that any complex form autosoft the TM has threaded will automatically affect his/her drones?  I would guess that they would need to be slaved to the TM via the living network echo for this to work, but that is not explicitly stated anywhere. 

[Michael Chandra]

eh, I deleted my comment.  Looks like as of 6we, they did not put a cap on the rating limit.  Very interesting possibilities, since Autosofts don't have to be at or lower than the Pilot rating.

Wasn't that limit added after SR5 CRB?

[dmetzkayak]

Hi rackhir

You are right, the 6e rule book never specifically states that "emulated" autosofts can be run on a an RCC. This makes it difficult to determine what the designers intentions were.

The best my gaming group could go by was to look at the rules describing emulate "this form can be purchased multiple times; each time you can choose 1 program to run. Includes autosofts."

And looking at the rules for the RCC, saying "Along with its defensive capabilities, an RCC can run autosofts and can share them out to all slaved drones"

The GM decided the wording of the rules (did not specify store bought autosoft) implied that all autosofts, emulated or store bought, could be run on RCC for sharing.

What the GM/Group also decided that we can only fit so many Nissan Samurai in our Bull Dog. 10 seats minus 4 characters allows for 6 drones to ride along on in a single scene.  The drones have 16 dice on sneaking so they don't get in the way of infiltrating facilities. However, if …. I mean when combat occurs and if a few drones get caught in a grenade blast, transporting the destroyed drones back to the vehicle will become a burden on the runners.  Our house rule for transporting one medium sized drone that have their condition monitor filled, is the dragging action takes 2 minor actions from the runner (forget reloading in the midst of the fire fight), and unless the character has a strength of 7 or more, the character cannot
sprint.

[Hobbes]

The GM decided the wording of the rules (did not specify store bought autosoft) implied that all autosofts, emulated or store bought, could be run on RCC for sharing.

My reading went the other way.  Yes if your GM is letting the CF "Share" on an RCC you'll be able to pull it off.  Riggers will have to wait till the Swarm program gets reprinted to get to silly dice pools on hordes of drones.  Ultimately a Rigger can pull off vaguely similar stunts with enough Nuyen, lower dice pools because the Auto-soft would "Only" be rating 6.

And as SSDR pointed out, a GM could decide a bunch of drones would use the grunt group rules. 

I suspect in actual play "Sneaking" turns into "Combat" usually too quickly to set up 3 sustains most of the time.  You may consider Psyche and just take the hit to the TMs dice pools.  If you're just sending commands and the Drones are using their own pools the Sustain penalty is irrelevant.  Sustain everything, order Machine Sprites to run Diagnostics on as many Drones as possible, do nothing but walk and give Drones/Sprites orders.

Mind you one Player running 20+ pets is a serious table issue most of the time, I'd be surfing on my phone most of the game.

[Banshee]

Hey gang ... a bit of insight on intent.

Living Network let you add devices to your Living Persona and for a PAN ... that includes drones. So a technomancer with that echo can emulate autosofts and effectively act as a RCC at that point.
Running the emulate aurosofts CF on a RCC works the same way as running any CF through a device of any kind. It can be done but you lose the ability to use your living persona because the device persona overrides it.

[Hobbes]

Hey gang ... a bit of insight on intent.

Living Network let you add devices to your Living Persona and for a PAN ... that includes drones. So a technomancer with that echo can emulate autosofts and effectively act as a RCC at that point.

Were you thinking the Living Network would share Autosofts among multiple drones?  Sharing Autosofts is explicitly stated under the RCC.  RAW I wouldn't presume the Living Network Echo could share Autosofts unless that is stated under the Echo. 

Don't have my rule book here at work for some crazy reason, so ticky-tacky RAW discussions from memory get a little difficult.   

[dmetzkayak]

Thank you for the tip Hobbes.

With forsight, taking the dice penalty and the use of psyche is a more sustainable approach, as the runners will inevitably be ambushed. Combat could be over before the technomancer could load the targeting and evasion autosofts in the RCC (or living network). I will also bring up with my GM the strategy of using the group grunt rules for multiple drones and spirits.


Banshee, do you have insight as to whether the living network using the emulate autosoft CF was meant to act as an RCC in its entirety.
Specifically:
Can the living network RCC share programs to all the drones attached to it?
What is the limit on the number of drones that can connect simultaneously (resonance X 3)?
Can the technomancer issue commands to all attached drones through a single action?

There may not be an obvious answer, as from what I have seen, the book does not cover this, but thanks for giving it a shot.

[Banshee]

Thank you for the tip Hobbes.

With forsight, taking the dice penalty and the use of psyche is a more sustainable approach, as the runners will inevitably be ambushed. Combat could be over before the technomancer could load the targeting and evasion autosofts in the RCC (or living network). I will also bring up with my GM the strategy of using the group grunt rules for multiple drones and spirits.


Banshee, do you have insight as to whether the living network using the emulate autosoft CF was meant to act as an RCC in its entirety.
Specifically:
Can the living network RCC share programs to all the drones attached to it?
What is the limit on the number of drones that can connect simultaneously (resonance X 3)?
Can the technomancer issue commands to all attached drones through a single action?

There may not be an obvious answer, as from what I have seen, the book does not cover this, but thanks for giving it a shot.

No, the living network and emulate combo does not offer all of the RCC features ... YET! Drone limit is less and sharing not available. My plan is/was to expand on the as soon as they give me some space in a splatbook... hopefully the new rigger book

[rackhir]

I see.  So for now we can safely assume that we need to thread separate CF for each drone on the living network?

[dmetzkayak]

Looking forward to the new rigger book.

How do you recommend my table play this type of character until then?
How many drones can connect to his/her living network simultaneously?

[Hobbes]

Looking forward to the new rigger book.

How do you recommend my table play this type of character until then?
How many drones can connect to his/her living network simultaneously?

The number of slaved things in a PAN is under review by the Errata team, IIRC, should have a definitive answer "Soon".

RCCs have a specific limit, and Commlinks got one tacked on in an odd place, I don't think Living Network mentions one at all. 

[dmetzkayak]

Will wait for the Errata.

If the character is played before then, I will recommend the GM, that 5 (the technomancers resonance) be the limiting number.

[Hobbes]

Personally I think PANs should have no limit, and that was Banshee's original intent as well.  They just don't function as an RCC (Noise Reduction, sharing Autosofts, ect.).

The Matrix support character should be able to do the basic Matrix support thing and give Firewall to the teams toys.